| The Hungarian uprising against Soviet occupation and rule began on October 23, 1956, fifty years ago. The precipitating event was a student demonstration in Budapest in support of events in Poland, in which reformist Wladyslaw Gomulka came to power following massive demonstrations in Poznan. Hungarian students were joined by workers during their march. When the crowd was fired on by the secret police, the revolt began in earnest.
Soon the government was forced to bring in a new prime minister, Imre Nagy, a reform Communist. However, when he wanted to withdraw Hungary from the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact and to call for an international guarantee of Hungarian neutrality, the Kremlin balked. It was not open to a country opting out of its sphere of influence, and Soviet troops arrived in force to put down the revolt. It was essentially over by November 10. Janos Kadar, the new puppet prime minister, had Nagy and a number of others executed. Following this repressive era, Hungarian politics took a strange yet welcome turn. The Kadar government and subsequent Communist governments grew progressively more liberal, eventually turning Hungary into a full-fledged multi-party democracy. Proving Hungary a legitimate democracy, the Communists’ successor party even lost elections.
An important element in the uprising was the birth of workers’ councils in the factories and councils that played a vital role in the uprising and that continued to operate even into the following year. These groups even achieved some success in gaining the release of political prisoners.
While the uprising was not the first evidence of the mortality of the Soviet empire, it served to greatly accelerate the process of disintegration. As well, it was a watershed in the decline of western Communist parties. Defections proliferated.
After the revolt, Hungarians dreamt about their political future. Could the workers’ councils be the face of a new society? Was it just the Soviet repression that prevented this from happening? Unfortunately, the form proved unstable. Where they have been tried subsequent to the Hungarian revolt, as they were to some degree in Yugoslavia, major problems occurred. Revenue went into increased wages at the expense of maintenance and expansion. The councils also demonstrated an inability to decide on methods of production. What was to be produced and in what quantity? They had neither markets nor marketing plans.
Hopes that the population would be radicalized failed to materialize. In Hungary this might be explained by the country’s history of repression. However, in the case of East Germany the Communist government was overthrown by a peaceful uprising led by left-wing libertarians. To thank them for their leadership, the population voted for the Christian Democrats and totally marginalized the libertarians’ erstwhile leaders.
The Hungarian uprising was a major turning point in the history of the 20th Century. However, it was not and could not be the dawn of a new political utopia in the former Soviet bloc. |
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